Happy Easter All

I'm spending the day tweaking A-Z and planning Camp Nano.

 

For my G-kid I found an Easter bonnet that I turned into a basket.

A couple of cute critters and some eggs.

 

For the kids.

Cards for coffee and silly animals.

 

 

True confessions.  I use to do an Easter Miracle.

Every Easter Eve when the kids were asleep I put fake flowers  in the garden.

One day no flowers next day wow.

 

Guess the universe is paying it back.

Below is an Easter amazing.

DH gave me an orchid for Valentines in 2012

When the flowers died he said, "Throw it out".

I can't do that.  I'm the queen of adopting plants and animals no one wants.

 

I gave it its weekly ice cubes and was rewarded with this beautiful flower.

There are more buds and another shoot.

It's a festivas miracle for certain sure.

 

 

 

Changed my mind.

I debated posting about what I was planning for Camp Nano yesterday.  Now I'm really glad I did.  I had two dreams last night.  One was engaging and the characters were intriguing. It had a good story flow with a satisfying ending.  Right after that I had another dream with all the same characters, but this time they were making different decisions, things were going horribly and the story fell flat.

I decided that this was an omen from my subconscious that I should not totally redo my one story.  It's a good story, I just didn't give it a chance.  Now I could be a Nano Rebel and edit that story for camp, but I think I'll wait.  I have another story that's been rolling around in my brain since last summer.  I've decided to go with that one.

Camp NaNoWriMo

 

I've been pondering what to do for camp this April.  I have a story from a couple of years ago that I put in the drawer.  I liked the story but it wanted to be a romance.  At the time I wasn't reading romance.  Write what ya read, right?  It kept insisting and so I put it in time out until it could behave like a proper fantasy story.

 

Lately I've been reading my blogger buddy's books, many of which are of the romance genre, and the thought came to me that perhaps it was time to revisit the story.  I am not going to go back and re-read anything.  I'm just going to start fresh and see where the story takes me.

 

At least that's the plan for now. 

 

 

 

 

Misrepresentation of Spring

Utah's prognosticator of spring is going down!! 
Sunset Sam, a huge guinea pig, got it totally wrong. 

Dear Sunset,
THIS IS NOT SPRING!
Sincerely,
Jai

 

See the street between me and my neighbor?

No?

Me either.

Stupid rodent!

The Big Reveal Bloghop

The A to Z Blogging Challenge is just around the corner and this hop is hosted by Mina at Some Dark Romantic and David at Brits in the US.  This year the participants of the A-Z Challenge have the opportunity of picking a theme.  This hop-within-a-hop is to reveal your theme for the challenge.


I decided to go with a writing themeish kind of thing.  Being a newbie I don't have sage advice but I have some things to share.  I threw in a few of my characters when I couldn't think of something else.  I even borrowed a character.  I hope that's okay Christine I could not think of anything that started with X. 
(Bonus points to anyone who can tell me what I used for X.  Here's a hint 1303)

Camp Nanowrimo

After I'd signed up for the A-Z Challenge I found out that Camp Nanowrimo was in April too.  That's okay, there is a July camp. I could wait.  When I discovered that you can pre-schedule the blogs for the A-Z Challenge it started me thinking, maybe I could do both.  It would work as long as I had my blogs done prior to April.  I can get word count for Nano done in the morning.  During the day I can blog hop for A-Z and the evening hours could be  for catch up on one or the other.

It will make for a busy April but DH is going to be out of town the first week of April.  The second week he'll be doing our taxes.  The third week the boys will be out of town.  Everyone will be so busy I don't think that they are going to miss me.

I wanted to do a 'don't look down' draft with a hint of structure to see if the end result was more satisfying. Nano provides the support structure for just such an endeavor.

My blogs are completed.  Some are kind of lame, but time is not going to change that.  Trying to find something to blog about utilizing MY pictures limits me greatly.  I would have just under two weeks to gear up for Nano.

I am really tempted.

Look at this

"Dang it" I meant to put my camera in my purse.

The mileage was close. I might make it home to take a picture.

I watched it every step of the way.

If push came to shove I would use my phone.

One of the kids would know how to make that work.

But I wanted to land in my driveway at 100,000 miles.

 

 

The gods smiled and life was good.

I had 1/10 of a mile leway.

I did it.

Squee

Happy pi Day

 

It is an obscure holiday that occurs on March 14. 

pi = 3.14

 

I know this because DH is into the whole math and physics thing.

He told me recently that he needed to watch his weight.

I guess he can look at this pie and celebrate.

 

Happy pi Day!!

The 13th Floor a series by Christine Rains

She has a blog tour happening right now for the release of the fourth book.

Zeus' commands cannot be ignored, but if you're clever . . .

I really meant to write something after I read the first book.  This is a series of novellas that tell the tales of six inhabitants of the 13th Floor.  A floor that doesn't exist.  The stories take place at the same time. It is a fun twist that I really like.

The first book pulled me in because the hero is not young. Each story has it's own unique flavor and the characters are not typical.  As I've said before I don't do book reviews.  But I will say that these are great reads and worth popping over to check out her page where she has the blurbs on the stories.

Insecure Writer's Support Group

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG).

They meet the first Wednesday of every month to encourage each other, share doubts and insecurities.

Thank you Alex J. Cavanaugh

You can go here to encourage other participants

 

This is my second month.

I wish I had more to report, but alas.

 

I am a pantser who decided I needed something more after a Nano "win" that was an epic fail.  A fail because the story truly needed to be buried or perhaps dipped in hot oil and set a flame.

 

I decided I needed structure.  I was going to tackle that pesky thing called plot and wrangle it to the ground. I bought the Plot Whisperer books and I have been reading them. I've read blogs and articles and everything I can lay my hands on to understand this concept.

 

Somewhere along the way I got over whelmed by it all. I was doing lots of reading but no actual practicing.   The concept feels foreign to me and I don't know where to start.  My muse said "Whaaa?" and fled the room.

 

I tend to be holistic in my approach to learning. I immerse myself into whatever it is I am researching, ponder it and at some point it makes sense to me.  This isn't working. I have encapsulated myself with too much information.

 

What I need to do is glean knowledge as needed. Instead of shoving the whole freaking apple in my mouth I will take smaller bites. I will write more.